How to Plant a Strawberry Pallet Planter

Tips for how to plant a strawberry pallet planter, with advice on lining it, growing strawberries, and the right potting mix. Strawberry pallet planters are handmade containers that allow you to grow an incredible number of strawberry plants in a small space. They’re easy to make with just a single wood pallet and DIY tools and are perfect for growing food on patios and in container gardens.

Some years ago, I shared how to make a Strawberry Pallet Planter, and they have taken off with popularity around the globe. I currently have two of them in my garden, and over the years, I have had countless crops of berries, carrots, lettuce, herbs, and tomatoes from them. These planters are inexpensive and straightforward to make and are wonderful for growing crops! Strawberries have always been my favorite since they grow beautifully through the slats on the side of the planter. Readers have also contacted me with photos showing mint, raspberries, and even ornamental flowers in them.

Planting a strawberry pallet planter is not difficult, but there are some steps and materials that I recommend. I go through each in the sections below, but please also watch the full planting video for further information. I’ve made perhaps six or seven of these DIY planters through the years, and each has been a huge asset to my container garden. Once you’ve made one of these planters, they can last for many years, depending on your climate and local pests. That means you’ll have the opportunity to replant it many times and get tons of tasty berries and vegetables over the years.

Materials Needed

Strawberry pallet planters are simple, low-cost containers perfect for growing food crops. They’re cheap and easy to build, and once made, you don’t need much to plant them up. The materials you will need include:

• Straw, burlap, or landscaping fabric
• Multi-purpose potting mix (soil-less) – about 100 L (3.5 cubic feet)
• Garden compost or composted manure – about 100 L (a wheelbarrow full)
• 12 strawberry plants
• Scissors

Choosing Strawberry Plants

You’ll also need plants. Any strawberry plants will do, but I highly recommend you choose an everbearing (day-neutral) variety. That way, you’ll get flushes of berries throughout the gardening season rather than one big harvest. Mara des Bois is an everbearing variety I recommend, and Eversweet, Fort Laramie, and All Season Fruiting are also good options. Alpine strawberries are another option, and they, too, produce berries throughout the summer. They’re much smaller and closer in flavor to wild strawberries but don’t tend to create runners and are fun to pick with kids. My planters have twelve plants each, but if you plant both sides, you can have up to eighteen.

Planter Placement

The first step in planting a strawberry pallet planter is setting it up where you want it to live. Once filled, it gets very heavy and is difficult to move! If you’ve made yours with wooden feet, as shown in the DIY, that’s wonderful. If not, I recommend setting it on bricks to elevate it from surfaces that runoff stains may damage.

As far as where to place the planter, a spot with full sun is best for tasty fruit and vegetables. They ideally need ten hours of bright, direct sunshine a day to produce the best crops. Leafy greens need at least six hours, and berries and fruit need more at about eight to ten. Strawberry pallet planters are attractive, so you might want to set yours up in an area you see and walk by regularly. A visible placement helps spotting and picking ripe berries before wildlife and dogs get them later in the season, too!

Lining the Strawberry Pallet Planter

Next, you completely line the inside of the planter. Without a liner, the potting mix will fall through and wash away through the large gaps in the planter. In my first planters, I lined the bottom of the planter with stainless steel wire and then used straw to layer the bottom and sides of the planter. This works, but the straw breaks down within a year, and the entire planter may need replanting. Since then, I’ve learned to use landscaping fabric instead. It holds the contents of the planter in, lasts for years, and is reusable.

Standard landscaping fabric, also called weed barrier fabric, is made from synthetic but non-toxic materials. I don’t have a problem using the type that doesn’t fray, but the woven stuff made of plastic strips is a nightmare. Though it’s quite expensive, I use biodegradable cornstarch landscaping fabric when I can – it’s the material in the photo above. It looks and acts like conventional landscaping fabric but only lasts five to eight years before naturally breaking down. Here in Britain, it’s supplied in large rolls through a company called Mulch Organic, but it isn’t a common product yet. Heavy-duty burlap would be a good and cheaper option!

Potting Mix for Containers

After the strawberry pallet planter is lined, it’s time to start filling. The best mix for containers growing edible crops is going to be moisture-retentive, rich in nutrients, and plenty of good drainage and air pockets. For all of these reasons, we avoid using actual soil in containers. It’s a medium that is only suitable for in-ground garden beds since it’s heavy, compacts, dries out quickly and ends up depleted of nutrients after a season. Instead, I recommend pure compost or a mixture of garden compost (including composted manure) and purchased potting mix. Potting mix is usually a mixture of fibrous material like bark or coir along with compost, perlite, vermiculite, and, oftentimes, peat moss. In the UK, potting mix is called compost, which is a bit confusing because though it can include compost, it often doesn’t.

My recommended mix for growing container vegetables and fruit is a 1:1 ratio of your choice of potting mix and garden compost or composted manure. You’ll need about two hundred liters (7 cubic feet) of compost and potting mix to fill a pallet planter. That’s a hundred liters of each material. Then, to mix them, layer one after the other as you fill the planter. Give it all a shuffle with a gloved hand or garden tool as you go along. An improvement on this basic mix includes slow-release organic fertilizer and vermiculite. Fertilizer provides nutrients to the plants as they grow, and vermiculite absorbs and holds onto water, creating tiny reservoirs for plant roots to tap into. However, its physical characteristics help improve drainage. I love using it in potting mixes, but it’s optional.

Planting a Strawberry Pallet Planter

The beauty of a strawberry pallet planter is that you can plant the top as well as the sides. However, it’s difficult to squish plants in through the slats on the sides without damaging them which is why we plant them from the inside. To do this, only fill the planter with potting mix to the first gap. Then, cut a slit in the lining material and gently guide the leaves of a plant through from the inside of the container. Repeat this process for other plants you want to be planted at that level. After that, fill the container with potting mix up to the next gap in the horizontal slats and repeat. Then, fill the container and plant more plants on the top.

I tend to space strawberry plants in containers just over a foot apart – probably about fifteen inches. For the top area, it’s easiest to space the plants out in their pots to get their positions just right. Dig them in after you’re happy with where each one is placed, then tuck in or trim the lining material if you wish. Though optional, it’s also best to mulch the top of the container after you plant it. Mulch is a layer of material set on the surface of your growing area that helps stop moisture from evaporating from the soil or potting mix. A layer of compost works as a mulch, as does straw. It will also stop weeds from growing in your container.

Fertilizing Strawberry Plants

The nutrients in both potting mix and compost will gradually deplete when used in containers. Run-off from watering can dilute and wash nutrients away, too. That’s why it’s important to fertilize all container-grown plants. If you mix a slow-release solid fertilizer into the potting mix while planting, that’s a big help. It only lasts for a season, though, so from mid-summer, it’s best to water containers growing food with diluted liquid plant feed. I do this once a week to keep my container plants healthy and productive, and I recommend that you do the same. If you continue with this regime every week during the growing year from thereon out, your plants will look incredible. You don’t have to buy liquid plant feeds, either, if you don’t want to or can’t afford it. You can use nettles, comfrey, and seaweed to make homemade plant fertilizer.

Watering and Aftercare

The potting mix in strawberry pallet planters should be moist but not wet at all times – it’s a balancing act that’s important to get right. If you water too much, the water can cause the mixture to become waterlogged or rinse important nutrients away as it drains. Excess water is dark in color and can stain decking or tiles, too. So dig your fingers in and feel before you water. I’d also recommend that you consider burying ollas in the potting mix when you fill it. Ollas are low-tech water reservoirs that plant roots can tap into, and I used them when I grew tomatoes in my pallet planter two years ago. Hot temperatures and windy days dry containers out more quickly than cooler and calmer days. You’ll need to water more then than at other times. Again, water using a watering can and diluted plant feed once a week during the spring and summer.

Caring for the Planter in Winter

Strawberry plants are perennial crops and overwinter well outdoors as long as temperatures don’t dip below 20°F (-6.6°C). If you get any days below freezing 32°F (0°C), then covering the plants with several inches of straw will help the plants to survive. You can remove this mulch in spring when the plants grow new leaves. However, strawberry plants survive better during cold winters when they are in the ground rather than planted in containers. That’s because containers and planters are more exposed to cold and wind. If your winters are harsh, consider placing strawberry planters against your house or an outbuilding from the get-go. It gives the planter more protection and is warmer than out in the open. Strawberry pallet planters can be heavy when filled, but if you have an extra person’s help, you could also pick the planter up and move it to an unheated undercover place such as a greenhouse or garage. Ensure that the potting mix inside does not dry out, and your berries have a better chance of survival.

Replanting & Planter Longevity

As for the longevity of strawberry pallet planters, my very first one lasted five years. It was looking a bit rickety towards the end but probably could have kept going if we didn’t have to move house. I have one right now that’s four years old, and it looks like it could last another two to three years before having to build a new one. How long they last really depends on your climate and if you have wood-eating insects about. During the time that you have one in the garden, you’ll likely replant it at least once. Strawberry plants, for example, produce well for three to four years, then need to be replaced if you want bumper crops again. The potting mix and compost could use replacing every few years, as well. Just follow the instructions already given, and you’ll be set for even more harvests from your homemade pallet planter.